Head-scratching

He became for a short time delirious, in consequence of attempting to comprehend the works of Mr. Nebulous, in which the English language is exhibited casting of summersets, with many prancings to and fro, before earnest-gazing, head-scratching readers, in murkiest obscuration, marvel stricken, with maddest humour and grinning contortions, heels-over-head, wondrous!

Yogi Berra is best known as a Hall of Fame catcher with the 1950s Yankees and for spouting head-scratching malapropisms such as "Ninety per cent of the game is half mental," but he also was a solid baseball man with good managerial instincts.

For someone who professed such deep respect for numbers, Plato certainly used some head-scratching ones in his Atlantis story. The dates don't match up even remotely with ancient history.

[…] Milly got out of her basket to reconsider the matter. It took some deliberation and head scratching to decide the best method; […]

You remember what a lot of head-scratching the kings had to go through in order to raise money. When there was no extensive and well-developed system of taxation, they were never sure of getting enough cash where they needed it when they needed it.

[O]ne morning I just started writing about how Judy met JFK in the winter of '60, and it seemed to go pretty well – better, anyway, than the false starts and head scratchings that were all I had to show thus far.

It is possible to spend a long time looking at this inscription. An informal survey of scholars at the University of Chicago, all versed in Hebrew, suggests that the inscription is at once enticing and frustrating, not quite nonsensical enough for immediate dismissal, nor sufficiently cogent actually to yield a reading. Instead, "mystère admirable," it invites hours of fruitless headscratching. The beholder, in this situation, winds up in much the same situation as the Pharisees in the picture: pointing, puzzling, and conversing.

And yet, arresting figures suggesting a decline in early season ratings have prompted an outbreak of soul‑searching at those broadcasters and head‑scratching among analysts.